The Russian-language programme Rabochaya programma uchebnogo kursa «Istoriya nashego kraya» (5–7 klassy) dlya obshcheobrazovatelnykh organizatsiy Respubliki Krym, issued by the occupation authorities' teacher-training institute in Simferopol, reproduced in full. The first page is the scanned decision of the collegium of the Crimean Ministry of Education, Science and Youth of 22 October 2025 (No. 6/5), which approves the programme, recommends it to every general-education school in Crimea and orders it to be posted on the ministry's website. TOT Insights did not find it there on 18 October 2026. The file has been converted to PDF with document metadata removed; the text is otherwise unaltered.
Russia made "History of Our Region" a compulsory part of school history in Years 5 to 7 from 1 September 2025 (Ministry of Education Order No. 704 of 9 October 2024). For the occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions the Ministry has admitted a federal textbook for the course (DOC-171); in Crimea it follows this regional programme, and the occupation ministry is preparing Crimean textbooks to match. The programme states its purpose as forming "all-Russian civic identity" and showing "the significance of Crimea in the history of Russia". Its 68 hours open with "the Russian World" and Russian as the only language named, frame the Crimean Khanate chiefly through the slave trade, and teach 1783 as Catherine II "accepting" the peninsula. In Year 7, seven of the seventeen lessons go to the Second World War, while the 1944 deportation appears as a single line with no date, no perpetrator and no mention of the Crimean Tatars. A single lesson covers 1945 to 1991 and declares the 1954 transfer to the Ukrainian SSR illegitimate. No lesson covers 1991 to 2014: the programme never says that Crimea was part of independent Ukraine, and moves straight to the 2014 "coup" in Kyiv, the "polite people" and the "reunification". The final project lesson teaches the official goals of the war, including the "defascisation" of Ukraine. It also has pupils aged 12 to 13 identify local participants and take part in volunteer groups that deliver "technical equipment" to soldiers.
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Structure of the course
68 hours in total: 34 in Year 5 (prehistory to the end of the thirteenth century), 17 in Year 6 (fourteenth century to the early twentieth) and 17 in Year 7 (the twentieth century to the present). The Year 7 lesson plan allocates seven lessons to the Second World War, one to 1945–1991, none to 1991–2014, two to the "Crimean Spring" of 2014 and its aftermath, two to citizenship and the Crimean constitution, one project lesson to the war against Ukraine ("Special military operation. Crimeans who are heroes of the SVO") and one closing museum lesson. According to the occupation Ministry of Education, Crimean schools teach the course in the fourth term of the school year.
| Page | Passage (Russian original, with English translation) | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | «…нацелено на формирование общероссийской гражданской идентичности обучающихся, определение значения Крыма в истории России, воспитание патриотизма.» "…aimed at forming pupils' all-Russian civic identity, defining the significance of Crimea in the history of Russia, and fostering patriotism." | The stated purpose of a regional history course is identity formation, with Crimea's history defined by its place in Russia's. |
| 10 | «Россия – единая страна. Русский мир. … Сохранение исторической памяти, недопустимость ее фальсификации.» "Russia is a single country. The Russian World. … Preserving historical memory; the impermissibility of falsifying it." | The opening lesson of Year 5, for children aged about 10 to 11. |
| 10 | «Русский язык – основа российского государства и культуры.» "The Russian language is the foundation of the Russian state and culture." | Russian is the only language the programme names. Neither Ukrainian nor Crimean Tatar is mentioned as a language anywhere in it. |
| 15 | «Походы (набеги) за ясырём. «Крымский полон». Невольничьи рынки в Кафе, Карасубазаре, Бахчисарае, Гезлеве. Кафа – центр работорговли.» "Campaigns (raids) for captives. 'The Crimean captivity'. Slave markets in Kafa, Karasubazar, Bakhchysarai, Gözleve. Kafa, the centre of the slave trade." | The Crimean Khanate's economy is introduced through slave raiding. Its culture is covered separately in one practical lesson. |
| 16 | «Манифест Екатерины II «О принятии полуострова Крымского, острова Тамана и всей Кубанской стороны под Российскую Державу» 8 (19) апреля 1783 года. … Историческое значение присоединения Крыма к России.» "Catherine II's manifesto 'On accepting the Crimean peninsula, the island of Taman and the whole Kuban side under the Russian Power', 8 (19) April 1783. … The historical significance of Crimea's accession to Russia." | 1783 is taught in the language of the manifesto. The emigration of Crimean Tatars that followed the annexation is not mentioned. |
| 20 | «Трагедия народов Крыма: депортация и реабилитация.» "The tragedy of the peoples of Crimea: deportation and rehabilitation." | The only reference to the 1944 deportation, placed among the Second World War topics between the liberation of Crimea and the Yalta Conference. It gives no date and no perpetrator, and does not name the Crimean Tatars or the other deported peoples. |
| 21 | «Передача в 1954 г. Крымской области из состава РСФСР в состав Украинской ССР. Неправомерность данного решения.» "The transfer in 1954 of the Crimean oblast from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR. The illegitimacy of this decision." | Pupils are taught a legal conclusion as a fact. This line sits in the only lesson on 1945–1991. |
| 21 | «Что такое референдум. Общекрымские референдумы начала 1990-х гг. Автономная Республика Крым.» "What a referendum is. The all-Crimean referendums of the early 1990s. The Autonomous Republic of Crimea." | The only trace of 1991–2014, placed inside the 2014 lesson as background to the "referendum". The programme does not say that the Autonomous Republic of Crimea was part of Ukraine. |
| 21 | «Государственный переворот 22 февраля 2014 года на Украине, приход к власти националистических сил.» "The coup d'état of 22 February 2014 in Ukraine; nationalist forces came to power." | Independent Ukraine first appears in the course here, as the setting for a "coup". |
| 21 | «"Вежливые люди". … Памятник «Вежливым людям» в Симферополе. Прототипы памятника «Вежливым людям».» "'Polite people'. … The monument to the 'Polite people' in Simferopol. The prototypes of the monument." | The Russian troops without insignia who seized Crimea are taught through their monument. The programme does not say that they were Russian servicemen. |
| 22 | «Апрель 2014 г. – военные действия фашистской украинской власти против Донбасса, уничтожение русскоязычного населения.» "April 2014: military action by the fascist Ukrainian authorities against Donbas; extermination of the Russian-speaking population." | From the project lesson on the war, for pupils aged 12 to 13. |
| 22 | «Цели СВО: защита русскоязычных жителей восточной Украины, дефашизация и демилитаризация Украины.» "The goals of the SVO: protecting the Russian-speaking inhabitants of eastern Ukraine, the defascisation and demilitarisation of Ukraine." | The Kremlin's stated war aims are taught as course content. |
| 23 | «Сбор и доставка военнослужащим СВО технических средств, оборудования, строительных материалов, средств для реабилитации, медикаментов. Участие молодежи и школьников Крыма в работе волонтерских сообществ в помощь СВО. … Участники СВО родного города, поселка.» "Collecting and delivering technical equipment, gear, building materials, rehabilitation aids and medicines to SVO servicemen. Participation of Crimean young people and schoolchildren in volunteer groups helping the SVO. … SVO participants from one's own town or village." | The lesson moves from history to pupils' own support for the army and to finding local participants in the war. |
| 23 | «АНО «Музейно-храмовый комплекс «Новый Херсонес»: Музей Крыма и Новороссии.» "The 'New Chersonesus' museum and church complex: the Museum of Crimea and Novorossiya." | The course ends with an excursion that places Crimea alongside the newly annexed mainland regions under the name "Novorossiya". |
Note
The programme was written by staff of KRIPPO, the institute that retrains Crimea's teachers. Its senior author, Yu. M. Mogarichev, heads the institute's department of social and humanities education. One of its reviewers, V. V. Maiko, directs the Institute of Archaeology of Crimea of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The collegium decision on the first page recommends the programme to every general-education school in Crimea "with the aim of implementing unified approaches", so it sets out the standard version of the course that Crimean teachers are expected to follow.